Stories for February 27th 2018

Britain should enter a new customs union with the European Union, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Monday, setting up a possible parliamentary defeat for Prime Minister Theresa May who has vowed to leave the arrangement after Brexit.

The president of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, dismissed the idea of holding legislative elections on the same day as the presidential election scheduled for April 22, as the ruling party has proposed.

Global warming is on track to wipe out 70% of the world's King penguins by century's end, putting the regal birds on a path towards extinction, researchers warned on Monday. As climate change drives away the fish and squid upon which the flightless creatures depend, the penguins must swim further afield to find sustenance for their hungry hatchlings on land.

The retiring head of counter-terrorism policing in the UK has warned of the growing threat of far-right terrorism. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, who will retire from the Met Police next month, said four extreme-right terror plots were disrupted last year. Ten Islamist-inspired plots have been foiled since March last year, he added.

Britain’s exporters risk being held back by a lack of access to key trading markets, new data has revealed. As Britain prepares to leave the EU, the data shows that key routes from Heathrow to Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai, Los Angeles, Tokyo Haneda and Dubai are virtually full and unable to accommodate further growth in trade. Combined, these six routes alone account for nearly 18% of Heathrow’s total cargo volumes.

Argentina foreign minister Jorge Faurie has written a long column, (full tabloid page) in Buenos Aires daily Clarin, under the heading of “Intelligent Insertion” describing motives and objectives of the country's foreign policy under president Mauricio Macri, driven by the principle of an intelligent insertion in the international scenario. The final commitment of Macri's administration is reducing poverty and improving Argentines' life quality.

It has been a long standing consensus-secret in the Uruguayan political system that when you are elected or have been nominated to a political post, you must not forget the family or friends particularly if they are in distress. This means in practical terms that the generous Uruguayan state will incorporate you to the burgeoning bureaucracy be it at national or regional level.

Credit Suisse plans to move about 250 banker jobs out of London under its first phase of Brexit planning, according to reports. Employees in areas such as trading and mergers and acquisitions were likely to be relocated to Frankfurt or Madrid, Bloomberg reported. The Swiss bank employs about 5,500 staff in London. A spokesman said Credit Suisse continued to investigate its options.